News tagged with drug resistance

New flu drug stops virus in its tracks

A new class of influenza drug has been shown effective against drug-resistant strains of the flu virus, according to a study led by University of British Columbia researchers.

Medical research created Feb 21, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Hydrogen peroxide vapor enhances hospital disinfection of superbugs

Infection control experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have found that a combination of robot-like devices that disperse a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxify the disinfecting chemical are highly effective at ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Jan 01, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists sound alarm over threat of untreatable gonorrhea in United States

(Medical Xpress) -- Researchers are continuing to sound the alarm on the growing threat of multi-drug resistant gonorrhea in the United States, according to a perspective  in the Feb. 9 issue of the New En ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Lift weights to lower blood sugar? White muscle helps keep blood glucose levels under control

Researchers in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan have challenged a long-held belief that whitening of skeletal muscle in diabetes is harmful.

Medical research created Apr 07, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New study explains duality of longevity drug rapamycin

A Penn- and MIT-led team explained how rapamycin, a drug that extends mouse lifespan, also causes insulin resistance. The researchers showed in an animal model that they could, in principle, separate the effects, which depend ...

Medical research created Mar 29, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Unchecked antibiotic use in animals may affect global human health

The increasing production and use of antibiotics, about half of which is used in animal production, is mirrored by the growing number of antibiotic resistance genes, or ARGs, effectively reducing antibiotics' ability to fend ...

Medical research created Feb 11, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Compound that halts growth of malaria parasite created

A drug candidate that has shown promise for neutralizing dangerous bacteria also prevents the parasite that causes malaria from growing, new research by a Yale University team headed by Nobel laureate Sidney Altman shows.

Medical research created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers use new finding to clear bloodstream malaria infection in mice

University of Iowa researchers and colleagues have discovered how malaria manipulates the immune system to allow the parasite to persist in the bloodstream. By rescuing this immune system pathway, the research team was able ...

Medical research created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Low cost pain drug can kill resistant tuberculosis

An off-patent anti-inflammatory drug that costs around two cents for a daily dose in developing countries has been found by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College to kill both replicating and non-replicating drug resistant ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Sep 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Low cost pain drug can kill resistant tuberculosis

An off-patent anti-inflammatory drug that costs around two cents for a daily dose in developing countries has been found by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College to kill both replicating and non-replicating drug resistant ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Sep 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Drug helps purge hidden HIV virus, study shows

A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have successfully flushed latent HIV infection from hiding, with a drug used to treat certain types of lymphoma.

HIV & AIDS created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Skin, soft tissue infections succumb to blue light

Blue light can selectively eradicate Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections of the skin and soft tissues, while preserving the outermost layer of skin, according to a proof-of-principle study led by Michael R. Hamblin of the Ma ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Jan 28, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Researchers describe how breast cancer cells acquire drug resistance

A seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment with the targeted therapy lapatinib has revealed a previously unknown molecular network that regulates cell death. The discovery provides new avenues ...

Cancer created May 07, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team finds gene that promotes drug resistance in cancer

Scientists from the University of Iowa and Brigham Young University (BYU) have identified a gene that may be a target for overcoming drug resistance in cancer. The finding could not only improve prognostic and diagnostic ...

Cancer created Jan 14, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

An antibiotic effect minus resistance

After 70 years, antibiotics are still the primary treatment for halting the spread of bacterial infections. But the prevalence of antibiotic resistance is now outpacing the rate of new drug discovery and approval.

Medical research created Oct 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Drug resistance

Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug in curing a disease or improving a patient's symptoms. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used in the context of diseases caused by pathogens.

Pathogens are said to be drug-resistant when drugs meant to neutralize them have reduced effect. When an organism is resistant to more than one drug, it is said to be multidrug resistant.

Drug resistance is an example of evolution in microorganisms. Individuals that are not susceptible to the drug effects are capable of surviving drug treatment, and therefore have greater fitness than susceptible individuals. By the process of natural selection, drug resistant traits are selected for in subsequent offspring, resulting in a population that is drug resistant.

For more information about Drug resistance, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.